1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sleeve/bag item of fat absorbing material of the kind which is used for covering distension elements/pelt boards for use in the drying of the leather side of pelts which are stretched out on the distension element and secured in the stretched position during the drying procedure, and where the pelt is secured in the stretched position by means of a holding bag drawn over the fur side of the pelt, and which over at least a part of the lower end of the pelt presses the pelt against a holding area of the distension element, the distension element preferably comprising a hollow, oblong distension element which comprises at least a first and a second convex surface with an open structure, and where the holding area comprises a part-area of said surfaces where this is rough, corrugated or grooved.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of a fat absorbing sleeve/bag item for the covering of distension elements used in connection with the drying of pelts from furred animals is well known. The fat absorbing sleeve/bag item, which often is made of paper, serves to protect the distension elements, which often are made of wooden pelt boards. Use has earlier been made of ordinary newspaper for wrapping around the boards before providing the boards with pelts to be dried. However, the newspaper was difficult to remove after the drying of the pelts, and for this reason, there was later developed tubular-formed bags of paper intended to be drawn over the distension element/the board, as will appear from Utility Model BR 1996 00208. From the same utility model registration, it is also known to perforate the paper material of which the bags are made, the object being to improve the through-flow of air during the drying process.
In the mounting of pelts which are to be dried on the distension elements, a stretching of the pelts is carried out with the view to obtaining a good pelt, the size of which after the drying procedure is very important with regard to the sales price which can be fetched for the pelt. Thus in order to secure the pelt in its stretched position, use was made and is still made of 8-15 staples which are driven through the lower ends of the pelt and into the pelt board, whereby upon conclusion of the drying process the pelt substantially maintains that length to which it has been stretched. However, said staples leave holes in the pelt, which reduces its value. To avoid this problem, a method has been developed for the non-destructive drying of pelts, as disclosed in Danish Patent 174 865 B1, comprising a holding bag which, when the pelt is stretched on the pelt board, is drawn over the board with the inner bag and the pelt, so that the bag presses against the fur side of the pelt, whereby sufficient friction is generated to enable the number of staples to be reduced to two or none, which means that the pelt does not suffer any noteworthy damage (few holes in relation to earlier). Alternatively, if a pelt of a smaller size category can be accepted, that the pelt does not have any holes whatsoever from the use of staples.
However, the size category of a pelt which is used in the fur trade is very important with regard to the price which a fur farmer can obtain at a fur auction. Merely a single size category can involve large amounts in earnings for a fur farmer, which is why further developments of the technique in the drying of pelts have been undertaken with the object of obtaining both a larger size category of the dried pelt as well as pelts without holes resulting from the use of staples for securing the pelt in the stretched position on the pelt board during the drying procedure. The problem with the use of the known boards of wood, which are made of a flaftish, conical board, in combination with a holding bag as disclosed in DK 174 865 B1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,756, is that the holding bag generates friction for the securing of the pelt mainly in the areas around the narrow sides of the board, i.e., the pressure arising from the holding bag on the broad side surfaces of the board is negligible, whereby the pelt around the tail root, the back skin can creep during the drying procedure, and therefore, use is made of the above-mentioned two staples for securing the pelt in these areas.
In order to solve this problem, there has been developed a pelt board which has a convex structure in both the longitudinal and transverse direction as well as in the height direction, which typically is formed of two mutually connected convex half-shells of plastic with an open/perforated structure, the peripheries of which define a cavity along the sides which, via an opening at the foot of the board, stands in connection with an arrangement (not described in more detail here) for the replacement of the air inside the board in connection with the drying procedure. The half-shells comprise a holding area where the surfaces of the half-shells on the side facing the leather side of the pelt comprise a corrugated/slotted/grooved or other roughness oriented substantially transversely to the longitudinal axis of the distension element, whereby the pressure exerted by the holding bag over a smaller area of the distension element is made more effective as a result of the greater friction generated, in that the leather side is pressed by the holding bag against the corrugated/slotted/grooved parts or other roughness existing in the holding areas.
This has led to efforts being made to stretch the pelts to even larger size categories, whereby the problem of securing the pelt around the tale root has again become relevant. Moreover, in practical trials with the holding bag in combination with the newly-developed distension element/pelt board, it has proved that the strong pressing of the leather side of the pelt against the holding areas has the result that the parts of the leather side of the pelt in contact with the distension element/pelt board are not sufficiently dried during the drying procedure, whereby there occurs a form of decaying of the pelt which hereby becomes black, and there also occurs a condensation of the moisture extract on the fur side of the pelt, which is naturally undesirable. This problem is pronounced, namely, in connection with pelts which are thick in the leather and with pelts which are badly scraped. In the solution to this problem, operations could be effected with the use of the previously-known covering bag, which extends substantially over the whole length of the distension element, but this will be quite superfluous since the structure of the newly-developed pelt board otherwise permits a much more effective/quick drying of the pelts than was possible earlier with the use of pelt bags on wooden boards, whereby use of such pelt bags would presumably solve the problem, but will result in an undesired extension of the drying time for the pelts. Moreover, the presence of a pelt bag around the places on the pelts where this lies in three layers will constitute a hindrance for an optimal through-flow of air and herewith the drying of this area of the pelt.